Hieronymos of St Paul's

Hieronymos of St Paul's, a hieromonk, was born in 1866 in the village of Vlatos in Kissamos, Chania, Crete. At only fifteen he came to live in community at Saint Paul's and in 1893 he was tonsured a monk. As a young monk he wrote to his parents that his only work would be the praise of his Maker; his only pleasure the reading of the Scriptures and hidden struggles; his food unceasing prayer, Communion, fasting and love; his drink tears; his garment temperance, silence and non-⁠possession; his father Christ and his mother the Theotokos. He was ordained deacon and priest and given the gift of confession. He celebrated daily, ate little and loved stillness, so the abbot permitted him to live at the hermitage of the Holy Trinity. For a short time he lived at Simonopetra and in the Saint Panteleimon skete of Koutloumousiou.

In 1925 he went to Acharnes in Attica, where he founded the convent of Saint Paraskevi as a dependency of his monastery. He lost his bodily sight, but the inner light grew in him and he was given the gift of foresight. Unable to celebrate, he devoted himself to confession and became an experienced guide for many monks and lay people. He preached Christ everywhere, counselled, reconciled, forgave and encouraged. He wrote verses about the Holy Mountain, and notebooks with thousands of his lines are kept in the library of Saint Paul's Monastery.

He reposed in the Lord on 13 January 1943, after receiving Holy Communion, among his many spiritual children. Elder Gabriel of Dionysiou wrote that the two Hieronymoi, the one of Saint Paul's and the one of Simonopetra, were the most brilliant Athonite confessors in the Greek capital. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.